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NEWS [UO.Com] Publish and Patch today (Read post #292 before posting))

Assia Penryn

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Oh wait... I get it. *laughs* Annihilation of all the Stark Family in GoT.


YES! Treat these dupers like George R. R. Martin treats every character his fans love!!!!
 

Olahorand

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Thanks from me too. So I can dismiss my prepared answer to this thread.
*Salute*
Olahorand
 

Lord Nabin

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This is the stuff that Legends are made of and celebrated by songs of the Bards.

*Settles back down to the fire and lifts a glass of Good Old Moonglow Red in Salute.*

*Flips a gold coin to the Bard sitting in the corner playing on his lute*

"Let's have a new story Tanis"
 

Sinder Shayde

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After this publish, we investigated further and discovered that only a small group of players exploited the dupe of the shield tokens. We are deleting those tokens and reverting the fix back by Monday at the latest.

It was not our intention to punish any innocent players, but to remove the 18,000 tokens that where duped. We have seized the houses and actioned the accounts of those responsible.

We appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter.[/QU
Thank You Mesanna!! :troll:..........:woman:
 

Dot_Warner

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@Mesanna It is good that this is being reverted. I hope you punished the traitorous scum in such a manner as they won't be able to easily return.

In the future, please always 'investigate further' before making a knee-jerk reaction publish that sends the community into a self-destructive frenzy. I think the adage "measure twice, cut once" is appropriate here.
 
T

Tazar

Guest
@Mesanna It is good that this is being reverted. I hope you punished the traitorous scum in such a manner as they won't be able to easily return.

In the future, please always 'investigate further' before making a knee-jerk reaction publish that sends the community into a self-destructive frenzy. I think the adage "measure twice, cut once" is appropriate here.
I totally disagree. In a case like this - I think it is best to take immediate action to halt things while the investigation is carried out. As an analogy... If you cut your ankle badly - wouldn't you want a tourniquet to stop the blood loss while they fix the problem?

I like that many here stated their cases professionally without resorting to name-calling, etc. It's sad that a few jumped to extremes without giving the dev's time to complete things.

I know everyone wanted immediate answers - but personally - I am glad the dev's were instead working on the real problem and getting a good solution that I think everyone can be happy with (except the dupers :p).
 

4gregu

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After this publish, we investigated further and discovered that only a small group of players exploited the dupe of the shield tokens. We are deleting those tokens and reverting the fix back by Monday at the latest.

It was not our intention to punish any innocent players, but to remove the 18,000 tokens that where duped. We have seized the houses and actioned the accounts of those responsible.

We appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter.
I have never loved you more than i do right now. *BIG HUGS*

(also... great job on banning some dupers, PLEASE keep doing that!)
 

Lady Lavendar

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I am greatly relieved to read Messana's message. Thank you. I had no idea Shard Shields were being exploited. I have been playing UO a long time and have several accounts with the shields. I use them mostly to help folks move their holiday gifts. I don't even make money off doing it. I also like to help groups get items for events, and I enjoy decorating. I have never exploited, or taken advantage of the shields in any way. I have looked forward to using these shields for a long time, and am greatly relieved to learn that hopefully things will be back to normal shortly.
 

Dot_Warner

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I totally disagree. In a case like this - I think it is best to take immediate action to halt things while the investigation is carried out. As an analogy... If you cut your ankle badly - wouldn't you want a tourniquet to stop the blood loss while they fix the problem?
If this has been going on for months to a year+, as a few have implied, a knee-jerk reaction isn't necessary. In fact, one would think that allowing the exploiters to continue for a short period while being observed would be beneficial to the devs to crushing the problem. Think of it as a sting operation using the little fish to catch the Big Fish. Track their activities, their associates, then scoop them all up and delete their assets.

Since the 'further investigation' apparently occurred within a 24-hour period after the initial post, it couldn't have been that difficult.
 
T

Tazar

Guest
If this has been going on for months to a year+, as a few have implied, a knee-jerk reaction isn't necessary. In fact, one would think that allowing the exploiters to continue for a short period while being observed would be beneficial to the devs to crushing the problem. Think of it as a sting operation using the little fish to catch the Big Fish. Track their activities, their associates, then scoop them all up and delete their assets.

Since the 'further investigation' apparently occurred within a 24-hour period after the initial post, it couldn't have been that difficult.
I still disagree. The implication/assumption that it's been going on for that long is a rumor and not something that can be verified. I don't base my beliefs on assumptions. I also do not see this as a knee-jerk reaction. I see this as a lock-down while things are searched out. I've seen the police lock down a 220 unit apartment community to investigate everyone on the property - and that way they caught the little fish and the big fish. I deal with this sort of sting all too often in my business and as I've heard a police officer say "It's much easier to count the roaches if you freeze everything first rather than try to do it while they are all scurrying around".

Keep up the good work @Mesanna!
 

Capt. Lucky

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Since day one UO has had so many bugs and exploits. At this point it kinda seems like a tradition. So can we get a round shield to carry around that says I survived the shard shield exploit? lol
 

Igg A Pie

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I have a few xfer shields and use them from time to time. obviously not to the extent of some of you in this thread. what was so bad about the system in place they felt this change was necessary? are they gonna give an explination at all? all I see in this thread is people complaining........maybe rightfully so. I am just curious as to why.
 

Keith of Sonoma

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That makes no sense. Do you have any idea how many pvp'ers/pvm'ers keep fully stocked high end characters on each shard just for this purpose with no need to transfer squat. Not to mention that almost of all them who get the loot, sell it to someone else within 48 hours for them to transfer. Pixel payday will happen for those people regardless of this mess.
But it may cut down on nearly every shard's EM event drop to be for sale with days, or even minutes after the event. If the patch helps with that, then I am all for it. Sorry.
 
T

Tazar

Guest
I have a few xfer shields and use them from time to time. obviously not to the extent of some of you in this thread. what was so bad about the system in place they felt this change was necessary? are they gonna give an explination at all? all I see in this thread is people complaining........maybe rightfully so. I am just curious as to why.
Mesanna's post above should clarify things on their end...

http://stratics.com/community/threads/uo-com-publish-and-patch-today.319432/#post-2415989
 

Gedgerez Tesherd

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Stratics Veteran
After this publish, we investigated further and discovered that only a small group of players exploited the dupe of the shield tokens. We are deleting those tokens and reverting the fix back by Monday at the latest.

It was not our intention to punish any innocent players, but to remove the 18,000 tokens that where duped. We have seized the houses and actioned the accounts of those responsible.

We appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter.

Mesanna, Today at 4:10 PM
Quite the plot twist I must say, & doubtful the guilty saw it coming. Kudos to the Dark Ladies mysterious wrath. *bows*
 

kelmo

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Wow. What a read. over 300 posts and a jillion views in 24 hours. A happy ending... or is it!
 

Poo

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just a thought..... we already have Pillories in game right?
just saying, we already have them in game..... could we not put some people in there for some public shaming?

*runs to get the marshmallows for the burning in effigy*
 

Poo

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Thank you for testing it.

I'm still upset by how this was handled and I am still upset about this change. This was extremely poorly handled.

So if this is character based, what does this accomplish other than being irritating? Anyone who is exploiting can still transfer every 25 hours with the inconvenience of having to move items from character X to Character Y. All it does is make your honest vets irritated and annoyed. I have seven characters on my main shard and I'm down to ONE account. So when I transfer characters... I will now have to move everything in my chars bank and backpack to a new character on every shard to get past this annoying timer? Really? So I get to jeopardize my items, gold etc or I can wait two weeks. What is the point of that? That isn't going to make me buy a transfer token from EA. It doesn't do ANYTHING other than make folks get more annoyed with this game.

If this about money, this is NOT the way to make that happen. I think it will have the opposite effect.

If this about an exploit, I can't see how this fixes anything as they can still transfer just as often. This hurts the vets who have BUILT characters on their home shards and no open slots.

If this about people hopping in on the EM Events, there are better ways to fix that than this nerf. Either a the EM pops a gate that checks how long the character has been on that shard and the destination is a place you can't recall into or open a gate. Have a one way gate out. OR make a basic land mass for these events that has the rule that characters must have been on the shard for X number of weeks. I've seen areas off-limits in the past outside of new characters and does a random inventory of players and boots those who aren't within the time parameters. You all have made amazing content and I know you could code a solution without punishing everyone.

My account is 203 months, that's roughly 16 years and 9 months.
i hate to be the math nazi's here but 203 months is 16 years and 11 months, not 9.
sorry, my OCD was screaming at me to correct that.
 

Poo

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out of curiosity

am i the only one that was logging in wondering if my house got deleted today?
i know i dont dupe but you always hear of innocent people getting rolled up in stuff like this.
logging in.... account still works..... is my house still there..... yes!
and my horde of shield tokens.... yup, all 4 of them still there!
 

CovenantX

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So, the two-week change is going to get reverted? If so, why exactly was it published in the first place, to somehow make it easier to find the player(s) responsible perhaps?

I'm glad something is being done, just kind of odd that there had to be a change to shard-shields/tokens put in such as this two-week timer for repeat transfers on the same character.
Hopefully the issue is fixed nonetheless.

It's also nice to see that guilty player(s) were found and dealt with.
 

Picus of Napa

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It's also nice to see that guilty player(s) were found and dealt with.
And we know this how? Sure it's been typed but this is from the same people who just yesterday thought the best solution to a rather unknown problem was to nerf every token that came from a shield. Are we to believe that they didn't have the ability to track down these 18K tokens, and the related accounts, yet they were aware of them all the same? The best that was said was " actioned the accounts of those responsible" which I certainly don't know what it really says. Suspended, banned, deleted or just removed the tokens and left everything else alone like the vendors with billions of suspect gold and who knows what other goodies(I'd love to not believe that the last option isn't the real " actioned the accounts of those responsible" but it certainly could be as you wouldn't want to piss off the all mighty random stranger on the interwebz).
 

Capt. Lucky

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out of curiosity

am i the only one that was logging in wondering if my house got deleted today?
i know i dont dupe but you always hear of innocent people getting rolled up in stuff like this.
logging in.... account still works..... is my house still there..... yes!
and my horde of shield tokens.... yup, all 4 of them still there!
Yeah I was, lol. I buy transfer tokens when I see them cheap and lock them down on my treasure room. No idea why lol. I just collect everything :p But they're still there so they must have been good ones. Was gonna buy a shard shield too I couldn't use, but someone beat me to it, lol.
 

CovenantX

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And we know this how? Sure it's been typed but this is from the same people who just yesterday thought the best solution to a rather unknown problem was to nerf every token that came from a shield. Are we to believe that they didn't have the ability to track down these 18K tokens, and the related accounts, yet they were aware of them all the same? The best that was said was " actioned the accounts of those responsible" which I certainly don't know what it really says. Suspended, banned, deleted or just removed the tokens and left everything else alone like the vendors with billions of suspect gold and who knows what other goodies(I'd love to not believe that the last option isn't the real " actioned the accounts of those responsible" but it certainly could be as you wouldn't want to piss off the all mighty random stranger on the interwebz).
It's just based on Mesanna's post, she posted that they have "Seized houses", so that to me, implies they have caught player(s) if it's true, I would assume all the houses that have been seized would be "Owned by OSI" or something like that, nothing more.
 

kelmo

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Yer fast Veldrane...:cool:
 

Picus of Napa

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It's just based on Mesanna's post, she posted that they have "Seized houses", so that to me, implies they have caught player(s) if it's true, I would assume all the houses that have been seized would be "Owned by OSI" or something like that, nothing more.
Aye, I guess I'm just skeptical.
 

Lady Michelle

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glad this was resolved, but this could of been worse could of been posted on friday
 

Assia Penryn

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i hate to be the math nazi's here but 203 months is 16 years and 11 months, not 9.
sorry, my OCD was screaming at me to correct that.
You're right. I divided it by 12 and got 16.9, wasn't thinking.
 

Picus of Napa

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I was just thinking of what an amazing PR event this could be. Why can't the team post pics and coordinates of the houses. Make them public but clear the access list and let the player base see what has gone on. I know that lots of people would love to know who and where these places were. Suspend the accounts for a year+ but don't ban them, I think the owner(s) should be on the hook to clear the CC billing.
 

Lord Nabin

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It makes sense to take the house and review the other items stored there which would have been obviously duped.

Some good insight could have been gained before deleting it and all the contents.

In the end I would like to see everything deleted
 

Daegan

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Setting the houses on fire for all their neighbors to know who they were was pretty public :)

On the flip side, that means all the contents of those houses are gone in the fire.
 

Smoot

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gee - they did what they should have just done in the first place and everyone thinks it's god's gift to mankind
im still mad. it was handled terribly, and just shows how bad a state UO is in. this is basic stuff. get your wording right, FIX problems BEFORE the masses even realize its a problem. thats the way a healthy game operates. obviously, we're lucky OSI UO still even exists. its stuff like this that makes people just lose faith and take refuge in the free shards tho.
 
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Lady Storm

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Do the deed against all and pay the price... I am quite sure this time the tokens and all will be poofed and the people who had a hand in this will pay the hard way. 18,k wow is all i can say to that number... amazingly stupid.
 
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